Because of their shape, helically coiled objects are very difficult to handle. This is particularly so if the helically coiled objects are made of a relatively soft material such as aluminium, for example so called "turbolaters" made according to our copending British patent application No. 8313162, now European patent application No. 84302487 (published under No. 125792). The turbolaters are twisted strips of material which are to be inserted into the tubes of radiators or heat exchangers to cause the water or liquid passing through the heat exchanger to swirl as it passes along the tubes and thereby increase the heat transferring efficiency of the radiator or heat exchanger. It is desirable that the turbolaters be made of as thin material as possible and also of lightweight material and because of this they are relatively easily damaged and very difficult to handle.
Our earlier European patent publication No. 125792 describes a method for making the turbolaters which are then stored in a container. A problem then arises in removing the turbolaters from the container because they are very light in weight (typically less than 5 g) and therefore easily disturbed during storage in the container and so become entangled and interengaged with one another.
In a preferred arrangement therefore the apparatus and method of the invention is intended to remove the turbolaters from a container and to feed them to a position in which they may be inserted, for example, into the tubes of a radiator or heat exchanger. (Through the rest of this Specification the term "radiator" will be used as covering both radiators for use in, for example, motor vehicles and heat exchangers for other uses.)
During the development of the present apparatus a number of methods of removing the turbolaters from a container have been tried. For example mechanical means has been provided to remove the turbolaters by providing a ramped portion alongside the container but it has been found that the turbolaters are not fed out of the container in a regular fashion but can frequently become engaged with one another.
Various means for handling generally cylindrical articles have been evolved. For example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,018 there is disclosed apparatus for transferring nuclear fuel rods from a conveyer into a container. However the nuclear fuel rods are accurately cylindrical and therefore at all times are maintained in a known predetermined relationship to one another, beside one another and exactly parallel to one another and it is therefore a simple matter to arrange a transfer unit which will substantially accurately engage with a supply of nuclear free rods, apply vacuum to lift the fuel rods and to place them in a container and vice versa. Such an arrangement would not, however, be suitable for use with lightweight turbolaters because, in the container, the turbolaters are not accurately spaced from one another but as mentioned above are entangled with one another and are not necessarily exactly parallel with one another and so it is necessary to find some way to release the turbolaters from one another to allow them to be picked up by the vacuum and also to ensure that only a predetermined number of turbolaters are picked up since, owing to their light weight, more than the desired number may become attached to the lifting mechanism by vacuum.